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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Fred Whipple Dreamed of Space Travel

Childhood polio ended Fred's dream of playing tennis, according to the Web site www.amazing-space.stsci.edu, but a high school astronomy course ignited an even more passionate interest.

"My interest in space travel began in my teens," Dr. Fred Whipple wrote in the preface to "The Collected Contributions of Fred L. Whipple, Vol. II" (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory/1972).

Born Nov. 5, 1906, in Iowa, www.amazing-space.stsci.edu said the boy could "add up customer's (sic) purchases in his head" at the grocery store where he worked. Over his 97 years, Whipple discovered five comets and an asteroid named Whipple, his International Space Hall of Fame biography stated. He was one of the first to discern that stars other than our sun emit radio waves.